The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1887-06-08

| MIR. Thompson is great authority, but
| | beg leave to differ with him. i would
ask if a Northern writer has ever pro-
duccd anything "grotesquo and ara
bcsquo?" That awful and powerful
wierdness of Poes writings was the OK
| pOncnt of the misfortune and misery OF
an intensely passionate Southern nature.
"Tho Raven" is nightmare of q hot
summers night. Have not all Southern
and oriental writer's this CHARACTERISTIC
gOrgeousncss? Is not Dante's "Infcrno"
characterized by this samo horrible
grandeur? Indeed your Puritan poets,
whilo they could point the world to a
| fable and prattle OF slavery, were utterly
Incapable of moving the human soul to
its very depths and riveting it in intense
emotion, as roe was wont to do. Even
Stcdman 81 : hat Hawthorne was no
better roma 'or than Poe. "Iho Fall
Of the House Usher" is grand mas.
terpiCce and will go to posterity on
equal footing with '"Iho Legend of
Sleepy Hollow" and ''Tho Great Stono
Face"
AS poet Poe is unsurpassed by any
| OF his countrymen. "Annabel Lee" is
one of the purcst gems of tho English
language. With the Europeans, and
especially with the French, ''The
poems. Aud "Ulalumc," and ''The
| Haunted Palace" and "Israfel"-who has
written anything finer than these? They
arc not only poetry, but they arc fine
paintings and grand music.
at was hard by the dim lake of Aubcr,
| In the misty mid region of Weir
| 1t was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the goul haunted woodland of Weir"
What imagery! What music to the
carl Poe's feet were winged, and they
could wander in that Gland east Of the
sun and west Of the moon," in that
border land of all the arts. 1t is true ho
did not write as much as Longfellow.
lie did not have time. Longfellow died
ut seVcnty-iivc. Poe at thirty -ninc. Tho
lark had Just begun his morning flight
when the hunter brought him down.
But the clear, passionate notes of this
songstcr will float down many ages to
come.
But why go farther? Did not the old
South have literature? Did not her
generous soil grow literary genius as
well as every other kind Of genius? For
ten years the critics-Northcrn, and /
blush to say Southern, too-have rackcd
thoir brains in the endeayor to formulate
an hypothesis to explain what they are
/
literature before the war;" In their
efforts to find a cause for n result which
docs not exist except III their own minds
| they have viliiicd our fathers and pro-
| claimed them an uncultured and unlct
tered people. But / deny the charge i'll
toto. Could man be idle who directed
tbC management of the broad thousands
OF acres of Southern plantation?
Could man DC idle and govern, protect
and provide for five hundred or thou
sand slaves? Could man without in
dustTy and executive ability bring agri-
culture to such state of perfection and
make mother earth yield SO bountitully
RS before the war? l know the Southern
planter did not do manual labor. No
wealthy man does that to-day.
And was the antc-bcllum Southcrner
Mculturcd? | declare that the culture
| al u refinement III the South before the
! war were such as the world has seldom
seen. They were IL noble, chivalric,
| a pat. .iotic people. They were not only
gentle III manners, but they were gentle
Mt hcun.
And " as the old South uncultured?
| Where ii sc boys went to college before
the war, O My two go now Her educa-
tiopal insti buttons were the finest in the
land. The. yc were the universities of
Virginia, Mi Ssissippi and North Carroll
M. William VI. Evarts sent his son to
the university Of Virginia, because"
said he, 'it is t. hc best in the land" But
tho critics say til e Southern boy did not
study. Perhaps uot, but the Northern
boy mt Harvard squeezed through Mt
"HIty," while the Southern 10y had to
toe the mark ut ''tSovcnty -1ivg' at the
University of Virginia And, dare say,
there was less dissipation at then liver
! sity Of Virginia bciore the war tl:an there
is ut Harvard to-day.
Yes, | am proud Of the old South. /
am proud of her people; / am proud 81
her deeds; / am proud of her blooi.
But l am glad the war turned out as it
did; | am glad that Democracy tri-
umphcd, and that all men arc now equal
before the law; and | rejoice heartily Mt
the material progress the South is now
making. But listen to my prophecy:
The condition of things in the South
to-day docs not sit well on the Southern
! temperament. There is too much of tho
dollar making. The Southerner is con-
scrvativc. But he IS proud and strong,
and things must yield to his will. The
fabric of antc-bCllum society is the ono
that suits him the best, and it is the ono
which he will weave for himself again.
Within the next next score Of years tho
broken threads will be taken up again
and woven into fabric whose texture
will bo finer and stronger than ever be-
fore. 1t will be free, democratic
aristocracy. And thcn-tho South will
be the grandest land on Gods earth.
JoHN HUMPHREYS WATKINS.
Vanderbilt University.
| <aas----